Scale-Master Posted August 9 Author Share Posted August 9 With the Hot Wheels decals being printed earlier than the Rain-X according to the date coding, I expected them to be more manageable due to more ink/less clear (equals more integrity) for many of the body wrapping graphics. Unfortunately they were more fragile and prone to cracking on the sheet even while still in the water and tearing during application. These CMYK U.V. ink printed (as opposed to screen-printed spot color) decals are usually somewhat resilient but apparently age may have taken a toll. They also, in this case, do not fit very well. I can already see there will be a lot of touch up painting done on this one. After getting the main decals on and letting them dry I started touching up the cracks and areas that didn't fit/cover the body color. It's a challenge to make an equivalent to the translucent white decal with paint. (Even the black is not opaque.) I used Tamiya Pure White mixed with a tiny bit of the TS-44 to treat the cracks and mis-fitted areas to start. There is still more touching up to be done before I apply the other decals, which will probably need to be touched up too… I blended white paint over the decals to soften the contrast between the painted rear end and translucent white side panels. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 I also had to touch up the side decals on the hood section. Orange was not printed in one part of the Hot Wheels graphic and it left a white area. Since the decals didn't line up with the body panels those areas needed to be hand painted in too. Unfortunately the decals are printed in a four color offset process, meaning all the colors are made up of dots, so there is no paint (or spot color) that can match any of the shades. And the wheel wells needed to have the graphics painted into them as well because the decals did not wrap into them as they should. I used Tamiya LP paint for the red and white and some old Testors enamel for the orange. Close enough is as good as one can hope for with these dot pattern decal colors. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 Turns out I missed a few small decals that are applied on top of other decals. I'm going to blame it on trying to do too many projects at the same time. (In addition to these three I have nine other models in progress on my bench at the moment.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Chernosky Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Mark...I can well apprecite your struggles with this one having done this kit myself. Of course my decals wern't as old as yours having done this about 15yrs ago. But matching paint to printed decals is no easy task. It takes a lot of resources, a lot of patience and skill with a brush. From all indications you have pulled this one off as well. Looks very good. Do you ever coat your old decals?. I use Liquitex Gloss Polymer medium thinned and brushed on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 13 Author Share Posted August 13 Thanks Rich! Matching the spot printed colors on the Sunoco wasn't a big problem; I've had a lot of practice, it's the dot pattern of the litho printed decals (like the Hot Wheels car) that's frustrating. Sometimes I clear the decals before use. I prefer not to, but in some cases it is the better option over creating new ones when replacements aren't available. I have a 1/43rd project that will require that technique to salvage most of the decals, I usually just use Future or Tamiya X-22 and hand paint them trying to stay inside the existing spot printed clear. If it's not a complicated sheet I'll spray the whole thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 13 Author Share Posted August 13 The rear bulkheads also benefited from some tedious hand painting. Definitely worth the time if you're going to have the bodies removable. The bulkheads fit pretty uniformly, but I was surprised at how differently each of the three engines fit into and lined up with the chassis since they all share the exact same parts. In the end I suspect it won't be noticeable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkJ Posted August 13 Share Posted August 13 Really loving watching not one but three builds progressing at the same time. All three are going to be magnifiicent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 The exhaust pipes are molded poorly and fit together the same way. A lot of clean-up is required on each half of each pair. Then even more filling and sanded is needed after they are cemented together. The ends were different diameters on the left than on the right so I added the same size brass tubing to make them equal at the tips at least... When I installed the exhausts , the ends in no way would align with the holes in the body so I cut the tail pipe sections off and drilled pilot holes to pin them back together at a more appropriate relation to the body exits. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porschercr Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 Great work. You're turning these challenging kits into something worth putting on the table/display case. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 15 Author Share Posted August 15 The Sunoco kit came with decals for the ignition boxes. I used the same artwork to print copies for the other two versions. At this point, (due to inaccuracies of the kits), true accuracy is not as much of a concern as what looks good as long as it's believable regarding color choices. That's the Rain-X chassis with the part installed. The blue boxes will go in the Sunoco car. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 16 Author Share Posted August 16 After I cleared the hood of the Sunoco car and it had dried for several days, some of the decals that cracked and I had thought looked OK after butting them back together had developed fissures at the same cracks where the dark blue now showed through. I blended in the same yellow mix I used earlier and a new mix for the red to hide them knowing it's a patch job, not a true repair. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 19 Author Share Posted August 19 The dashboards for the Rain-X and Hot Wheels versions came with decals. I decided it wasn't worth my time to make decals for the gauges so I just hand painted the instrument panels as they came from the kits. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 20 Author Share Posted August 20 Instead of building all three chassis at this point, I concentrated on the Rain-X chassis since the body was the furthest along. I needed to make the tailpipes fit on one so I'd know how to deal with the other two cars. I went ahead with painting and decaling the individual parts for the other cars though. I used the extra seat belts from the left over Sunoco sheet (after clear coating them) for the Rain-X car and printed a copy for the Hot Wheels car. The Jack Baldwin lettering for the seat was not backed in white from the kit so I made a replacement decal for that too. I painted the seats dark gray for a little contrast against the black belts. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 21 Author Share Posted August 21 The windows have been installed in the Rain-X car. They are not the best fitting even after all that sanding and trimming; the rear window is just too wide. And the windshield is a very "soft" fit with a good amount of load on it due to the flex of fitting the body on the chassis. They had to be held in place with CA. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 The body doesn't fit too well over the chassis and the sides at the bottom do not want to meet with the chassis at all. I made some steel brackets and utilized more magnets to get the body to fit better and somewhat consistently line up to the chassis. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattilacken Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Nicke builds! I have gotten the tip to use thin pins that gotten drilled in to the chassis and the body to secure it in place. all your 3 builds look sharp as always! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 The body doesn't fit too well over the chassis and the sides at the bottom do not want to meet with the chassis at all. I made some steel brackets and utilized more magnets to get the body to fit better and somewhat consistently line up to the chassis. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 Turns out the windshields need to be fully cemented to the opening for them to hold up to the spread of the body over the chassis. It popped out after a couple days leaving some of the black paint on the body, so that had to be cleaned up and the trim repainted. Now I know for the other two… The body & windshield did not fit well over the chassis either. The dash and windshield fight for the same real estate. So I notched the dash and trimmed the support bar to move the dash rearward. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 31 Author Share Posted August 31 I'm pleased with how the patch job on the paint/cracked decal issue came out on the Sunoco hood. I know where to look, but it's not easy to see if you don't… 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkJ Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 you are correct, Mark. I can't see anything wrong with it. In fact, it looks pretty Awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted August 31 Author Share Posted August 31 I thought I was going to be able to finish the decaling on the Hot Wheels car, but the last decal was the Z28 & bowtie for the rear and it was printed in white. It needs to be black since the back of the car is white. I used the kit bowtie and printed a new black Z28. Finally clear coated after that minor delay... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 I installed the windows in the Sunoco car and went for a much stronger cementing of the windshield after learning how much load the chassis puts on it from the Rain-X car. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkJ Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Hopefully that will do the trick. If not, you might try some two-part epoxy that comes in bottles and sold by hobby Lobby. It's much easier to mix up than the kind that mix in the applicator or the kind that comes in tubes. It's clear after it sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted September 2 Author Share Posted September 2 9 hours ago, MarkJ said: Hopefully that will do the trick. If not, you might try some two-part epoxy that comes in bottles and sold by hobby Lobby. It's much easier to mix up than the kind that mix in the applicator or the kind that comes in tubes. It's clear after it sets. The CA works great, I did a full How-To article on it but I can't share it here because I did it for a competitor magazine. If you search for "how-to/2024/07/cement-clear-parts-with-superglue-without-fogging" you will find it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale-Master Posted September 2 Author Share Posted September 2 I figured out how to get the brass ends I added to the exhaust to work with the kit provided exhaust tips. The body fit is not all that positive, especially if you want to be able to remove the body. And it manifested in the way the pipes exited the body non-uniformly. I decided to use the kit parts to make them look the same from the outside. I shaved the insides of the kit parts down and drilled them out to receive the modified pipes. I had to file the brass tips to fit too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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